How to Create a Devoted Cleric

Devoted Cleric Class Description

The Devoted Cleric in the Neverwinter MMORPG is a character class focused on healing and buffing themselves and fellow party members. Unlike other MMO’s, Neverwinter’s Devoted Clerics heal, but they heal slowly over time or heal a little with each action they take. This makes the Devoted Clerics role as healer much more active than in many RPGs. They can’t withstand a lot of punishment but many of their healing powers heal an ally as well as themselves. Devoted Clerics are also good at dealing Area of effect damage as well. This makes them well suited to work on groups of minions while keeping the group healed. Devoted Clerics will make an ideal character for someone who wants to primarily heal and buff themselves and the party along with attacking groups of enemies.

Devoted Cleric Class Role Specifics

The Dungeons and Dragons 4e role that Devoted Clerics fit into is the Leader, also known as the Healer. Devoted Clerics specifically focus on healing first, and then use spell power to attack enemies. Most of the Devoted Cleric’s healing abilities are small heals that can be cast frequently. Also, many of their powers heal nearby allies or themselves. Some of the Devoted Cleric’s most often used powers heal slowly over time instead of the typical MMO, or even 4e style, of big heals all at once.

The secondary role of the Devoted Cleric is to buff their party members as well as use some of their Area of effect powers to rain divine destruction down on their enemies. Devoted Clerics do not have the biggest AOE powers in the game. That title stands with Control Wizards. But they do have an array of powerful AOE powers that complement their healing nicely.

A Devoted Cleric is one of the more versatile classes in the game where a character really can choose between being an offensive based Area of effect nuker, a highly defensive based party buffer and healer, or something in between. As a rule of thumb it is a good idea to trail most powers to at least rank 1, so you can switch out between solo friendly and group friendly powers.

Solo Friendly: Nukes, Single Heals/Regens and Buffs

Group Friendly: Group Heals and Buffs, Area of effect Buffs such as Hallowed Ground

The Devoted Cleric’s primary method of defeating enemies is by starting with a buff or two along with some hit point regeneration, then using their Area of effect powers to quickly defeat minions. When it gets down to the tough boss or group leader, keep it debuffed and themselves heal while whittling down the boss with damaging powers. This will make fights much easier because Devoted Clerics have weaker defenses and can quickly become overwhelmed fighting many creatures, and their heals will just not keep up.

Creating a Devoted Cleric

When you create a Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter, keep in mind the primary abilities that make a good Devoted Cleric:

Wisdom – This will determine a Devoted Cleric’s healing and damage amounts. Since Devoted Clerics do both, this ability is a no-brainer.

Charisma – Unlike other classes where Constitution is usually number 2, I would suggest going with Charisma. Since you can heal yourself, lower hit points are not going to be an issue. With Charisma you will gain Recharge Speed of Powers and Action Point gain increase. Both of these are much more important than a few extra hit points.

Picking a Race for your Devoted Cleric

Next, you will need to select the race of the character you want to play. A couple of good choices for the Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter are Half-Elf and Dwarves. These races may give you a slight advantage just starting out with their stat boosts. However, as you level, you can easily mitigate any advantage you may have had through assigning leveling points, feat points, and magic items. So don’t worry too much about what stats the race gives you.

Instead, choose a race that makes you happy, then look at the racial abilities they may offer, and lastly look to the ability bonuses the race may offer.

Rolling Dice for Ability Scores

You will roll virtual dice to determine starting ability scores. When you roll up your character, you can roll all you want. So make sure you keep rolling until you get the best stats possible for your Devoted Cleric. Wisdom should be maxed out, and Charisma should also be very high. If you can, try to get your character’s Constitution to a good score. Your other ability points will affect your character some, but not much, and not as importantly as your two primary abilities.

When you level up these abilities throughout your career as a Devoted Cleric, you should put 1 point in Wisdom and 1 in Charisma every time.

Items and Gear for a Devoted Cleric

The items and gear in the game definitely help fine tune your Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter. As a Devoted Cleric you are can wear medium defensive armor; however, to be a successful Devoted Cleric your focus should be on your damage and healing power. Try to focus on items that grant Recovery and Power. Recovery will increase the speed you recover action points. This will allow you to use your best Daily Powers more often. Power will increase the potency of your powers so they are more effective. With careful planning you’ll be able to kill enemies with one shot, minions at your level, and take down an enemy boss very quickly. This will be the key to a successful Devoted Cleric. With the ability to increase Action Points quickly through healing between battles you should be able to use your Daily Powers frequently.

As a Devoted Cleric your purpose is to keep yourself and your party alive while taking out the smaller minions as fast as you can. Then turn to focus on the most powerful enemies. Try not to take the bosses on directly. Instead, debuff them or mark them so those that are directly battle them have an easier time of it. A Devoted Cleric should not be toe to toe with an enemy if they can help it. Try to stand on the outside range of your burst healing so you can heal yourself and the tanks while staying out of the way of the boss’s big attacks.

Make sure you are always stocked up on healing potions. They are relatively cheap and easy to use in the heat of combat. They can come in extra handy when you have been so focused on healing others that you forget to heal yourself. This can happen easily, especially in fast paced Dungeons. Between potions and your healing powers you should be able to keep yourself alive while helping rest of the group to do the same. Don’t wait too long to take a healing potion. When you get to half your hit points, make sure to take a healing potion. A Devoted Cleric can find themselves the center of attention with the enemies because they are healing and damaging an enemy which increases their aggression. It is all too easy to wait too long only be knocked down or stunned and unable to save yourself.

You can also get short term buffs through collectibles bounties you will gather in each of the public areas. If you need the extra boost you can use these collectibles and turn them into the Bounty Boards to get items to use for short term bonuses. These will always relate to the area you are in so use them while you are in the area or for Foundry quests if they apply. As a Devoted Cleric I found you didn’t need these as much so using bounties for coins seemed a better use. Or you can save these boosts for when you are raiding and Dungeon Delving.

Also try to stockpile any potions you run across for the boss fights or other difficult areas. Taking a few potions for a fight can mean the difference between a miserable, drawn out failure and a quick resounding success!

Playing a Devoted Cleric

When you are playing a Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter, you should hang back and let others lead the charge into battle. Keep an eye on who is tanking or leading the group as they will probably be your focus for healing and buffs. Be careful as you move through dangerous areas and do not take any erroneous damage that can be avoided such as traps and burning areas. A Devoted Cleric should try to be in the middle of battle so Area of effect heals and buffs hit as many allies as possible.

The best strategy I found when playing a Devoted Cleric is to use your powers of regeneration on the main leader or who is first in combat. This way they have a hit point regeneration whenever they encounter traps or charge into battle. It is likely they will charge in and will be out of range until you catch up.

Once combat is joined, either place a stationary Area of effect buff or start placing debuff/healing seals on your enemies. Make sure to position yourself in the center of combat so that when you start using your mass area of effect heals they will get as many as possible.

Once seals are on targets and your heals are out you can start picking off small groups of minions with your own damaging spells. It is very helpful for a Devoted Cleric to keep an eye on Control Wizards and blast any enemies that they gain the attention of.

Companions of your Devoted Cleric

As you learn to play your Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter you will learn what you like and what you don’t. You will get a feel for your character and what may be a good complement to your style. This is where your companion choices will come into play.

Somewhere in your mid to late teens you will be able to afford a companion. There are many different ones to choose from but only a few real roles that they will serve.

I found that there really is not a best one for Devoted Clerics in Neverwinter. Devoted Clerics can have pretty widely varying abilities so the companion you choose should complement that. As a generalization a Striker can be good for adding a bit of damage. A Guardian can be OK for taking agro but neither is the absolute best one. With my Devoted Cleric I carry a Striker, Guardian and Controller. I cycle these through a rotation on when they need training or if I know one particular one works better in a specific area. Go with the companion that makes you happy and don’t hesitate to try out a couple. Each can play a role depending on your gaming style.

Grouping as a Devoted Cleric

When you are playing a Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter, you will want to group with others for a lot of different reasons. Play your Devoted Cleric well and you can insure the group’s success. All classes can be played poorly but a well-played Devoted Cleric will really help a group dominate the masses of monsters in the quest they are running.

When a Devoted Cleric is in a group they will want to follow the group. You really should be the last one to the encounter. This way you can best find where you should drop a buff and take a look to see where the leaders are so you can place seals on the.

The Devoted Cleric’s main job is to heal damage to party members without getting hit themselves. This can be difficult but should be a goal of Devoted Clerics.

A Devoted Cleric should be ready to contribute to damage with ranged powers and abilities but need to remember this is a secondary role.

It’s important to know that a well-played Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter should focus on buffing and healing the party. However, their heals are small, heal over time powers, so they really can’t do “rescue healing”. Rescue healing is when a party member is almost dead and getting pounded on. Many other MMOs have spells and powers that can heal that person dramatically, in effect, rescuing them. If there is any sign that your party members do not know this make sure to share this mechanic with them. They should be willing and ready to drink potions when they get below 50% health.

In big fights where there may be lots of tougher enemies, try to focus on healing and buffing. Let the tanks (Guardian Fighter, Great Weapon Fighter) make the mobs mad while the Control Wizard parks them with stuns. As a Devoted Cleric you should be plenty busy buffing, healing, and putting seals on all of these powerful enemies. You do not want to also make a bunch of them mad at you with damaging area of effect spells. If you get too much attention and can’t keep healing the group you are looking to have a group wipe. This is bad. Have a little patience and manage the combat so you can keep the healing flowing and avoid as much attention from the enemy as possible.

Player Versus Player as a Devoted Cleric

Disclaimer of Bias: First off let me say that Dungeons and Dragons has never been, nor ever should be, a game based on single player versus player battles. The whole point of Dungeons and Dragons is to bring players together in a group, not have them fight each other. To this end, each role in Dungeons and Dragons is meant to be part of a whole cohesive unit and when you break that up, each piece cannot be balanced due to the role they fill. Being able to kill something is a very narrow view of what makes a good character. That is just one thing in a long list of things that makes any Dungeons and Dragons game and group successful. Player versus player is a bit blasphemous, in my opinion and goes against the true spirit of Dungeons and Dragons. However, group versus group battles are more reasonable and have a better chance of succeeding in balance. I will talk a little about both below.

Devoted Clerics in player versus player combat are difficult to play. This is because of the damage that an enemy can do instantly and the heals of a Devoted Cleric are a slow trickle of hit points. Because of this I would suggest that a Devoted Cleric focus on stuns, knockbacks, and go as offensive as possible. Devoted Clerics have a few powers that can accomplish this and if you can get these off before someone slices or blasts you in two, you might have a chance.

If a Devoted Cleric gets stunned or trapped in combat they can be quickly defeated by other classes. So keep moving around and use your dodging ability often!

In group based player versus player combat, a Devoted Cleric can be very effective as long as the group works well together. The Devoted Cleric should be the central focus of the group. This way area of effect heals hit most people and the group can keep focus on one enemy at a time while protecting their own party. When this is the case I would suggest that Devoted Clerics keep their regular Dungeon Delve type powers available such as area of effect heals and buffs, seals, and debuffs.

Overview of a Devoted Cleric

All in all a Devoted Cleric in Neverwinter can be a lot of fun to play. They are a very active and tactical class to play. If you have played clerics or healers in other games the Neverwinter Devoted Cleric might take some getting used to with their small but steady healing. Once this style of healing and buffing is learned the class is a fun and active one to play. If you like the ability to heal, buff and blast enemies with powers, a Devoted Cleric may be just what you want to play. They are very versatile and adaptable to many different types of play styles.

Devoted Clerics have a good mix of area of healing, buffing, debuffing, and damaging attacks which allows them to handle many different situations. You need to remain active and aware as a Devoted Cleric so you can keep players hit point bars full and the enemies off balance. Through the use of feats and Paragon abilities, you will be able to fine tune your Devoted Cleric into the specific kind of character you want for Neverwinter.

2 Comments

Are you talking about the Hallowed Ground daily power? As far as feats and Powers go it depends on the build and what you like to do specifically with your cleric. I would suggest buying every Power that is available. Test it out some and then just rank up the ones you like. Once you are working into the Powers you like to use, then try to select Feats that empower those.

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